Notes from Lopez
by iloverivera
Summary: Inspired by The Quiet. Santana Lopez relied on her Dad for everything in life after the death of her mother, but when her Dad died she was sent to live with Mr and Mrs. Fabray and their daughter, Quinn. Santana has been deaf and mute since her mother died, (or has she?) while Quinn is being sexually abused by her father, the two girl's worlds come together. A Quinntana fanfic.
1. Introduction

**Notes from Lopez.  
Chapter 1:  
Introduction.  
**

* * *

_It's never easy to lose somebody you love. Honestly, it's never easy to lose somebody, period. Whether it's love or hate, whether it be admiration or just that feeling you have about someone, it's the single fact alone that there's apart of your life being ripped from you. Unwillingly. Forcefully. Plain harshly.  
It's not a matter of size or significance. Even if you can't see the hole, it's still there. It hangs in your being, it plays through subconscious and it comes out right when you least expect it, exactly like the act of it being taken from you.  
Unexpectedly. It was something you couldn't predict. The likelihood of my father's death had not been printed into a newsletter and posted out for me to collect and read, it was something that caught me completely off-guard. It's not something you can prepare for.  
Some may say it's easier being aware of the person and the feelings you're about to lose, but how is that possible? In the end it's all the same.  
You cannot make a plan that'll hold you stably.  
There's no process to go about after it happens either.  
It is what it is, and it's going to be different no matter what.  
It's an alteration of your life.  
Sometimes the level of hurt is just different._

_And on a scale of 1 to 10. It hurts like hell.  
_

* * *

"She's not normal mum, I don't know why we've got to do this for her."  
I glanced up from my paper and straight at her. She was at it again, those perfectly styled curls that fell just before her collarbones bounced around as she tossed her head around while complaining about my presence. I'm sure she wouldn't say things like that if she knew I was listening. But it was the honesty that I appreciated.

"Careful, she can read lips you know.."  
My focus snapped straight back to my journal as their gaze shot over at me, I scribbled a few more lines to seem convincing enough. I didn't need it to come cross like I was noting out what they were saying, they'd done enough for me already and I wasn't about to let that slip up.

"You know how much this means to your Dad, don't you think you could at least try Quinn?" Mrs. Fabray's hands moved to her daughter's head where she began to slowly push her hair back, she placed a kiss on her forehead. "I know you'll get along eventually. I'm out for tonight so there's dinner in the freezer, just heat it up and spend a bit of time trying to get to know her okay?"  
Quinn's lips attempted to open but there was no point, Mrs. Fabray had already grabbed her suitcase and was half-way out the door.  
This was only my third night here and it was already the second time she'd had to work night shift. Mrs. Fabray was a surgeon which meant she was on-call a lot of the time and it didn't take a miracle to figure out just how much it irritated Quinn.

"Not sure what time your Dad will be back tonight Quinny, try call him if you want but I'll be back before lunch tomorrow."  
There was a loud bang heard as the front door slammed shut, I didn't even flinch which wasn't something that I'd mastered overnight.  
Quinn strolled past me and straight towards the fridge, my guess was for our dinner but instead she pulled out a box of liquor.  
"I'm having a few people over tonight, but don't tell anyone." I heard her voice as she sorted through the fridge for some other things.  
My head stayed down until a container was thrown on the bench in front of me.  
"Heat this up." Quinn moved down to meet my stare, her lips moved slowly enough to ensure that I understood what she meant. I just nodded and moved the container to the side.  
This was also the second night that she'd had people over. The first night was okay, her attempt to keep her friends from trying to figure me out wasn't anything less than I expected. I got where she was coming from, a deaf girl with no parents who you suddenly have to make family. Who wants that?

"So look," Quinn started as she moved the chair opposite me out from under the table. "I don't want you to tell my mum and dad about this, okay? You're lucky enough to be here as it is, so just stay quiet."  
I gazed up at her, those eyes, there was something about them that I could never quite figure out. It was as if hidden behind all the aggression was an innocence about her, which flashed out at you in gold flecks that mixed together with her green eyes. I hate that I liked that so much about her.  
She stayed for another minute or so until she got tired of no response, I watched as she moved from her seat to around the table. At the exactly right moment I grabbed her wrist softly, pulling her back closer to the table. The expression written across her face didn't seem pleasant. Hurriedly I grabbed a note from inside my journal and scribbled a few words across it and handed it to the unenthused blonde that stood impatient beside me.

"_I get it._" She read my note aloud before she scoffed and tossed it back on the table. "As if."

It was then that I realized just how much it was going to take to live comfortably in this house.  
"Sorry." I murmured under my breath so quietly nobody but myself would ever hear me. Sometimes I wished I'd never started this act, but then sometimes I just missed my father.


	2. Touch and Go

**Notes from Lopez.  
Chapter 2:  
Touch and Go.  
**

* * *

Two weeks had passed since I had first moved from my childhood home into the Fabray household. I couldn't say that I wasn't not enjoying it but then I also wasn't extremely thrilled about being there either.

It had me lost from the very beginning of the adoption as to why this man I had never met before in my life, was so interested in saving me from my crazy mess, the only real connection he and I had was his wife's share of my father's surgery. But his rare altruism aside, I was completely grateful.

It just so happened that there were conditions apart of the contract Mr. Fabray had signed. The circumstances that came with my adoption was my requirement to attend to school, the lawyers that handled the documents had made the Fabray's sign and swear to support and pay for all aspects of my education, my part of that deal was keeping my grades above a C. That didn't really stand as a problem, I'd always found it easy to slip into an A for majority of my classes, but here I was dealing with the death of my father, moving to a new town, starting a new school with the only person I knew having some sort of silent hatred for me.

The start of school was tomorrow, and I couldn't sleep. The moon was hidden behind the lace curtains but there was enough visible for me to watch, not that it was the reason for my distraction all night.  
I had only short shorts with a lose tank top on, my blanket was wrapped around both my legs and fell over only half of my body, the Summer heat was my favorite but never for sleeping in. The warmth didn't add to my ability to sleep either, I wasn't sure about tomorrow, hell I wasn't even sure about anything that related to my situation. How was I going to make things better? Everything didn't really fall into place anymore, life used to be perfect and now everything was just uncertainty.

"Dad.. Please no." I overheard the slightest whimper coming from across the hall which made me jump a little. It was 3 in the morning nobody else could possibly be up, I hadn't slept all night so surely the sleep deprivation was causing me to hear things, I shrugged it off and focused my attention back to the half moon that had partially disappeared behind the clouds.  
It couldn't have been more than 3 minutes later when I heard another bump, my attention was caught. It was louder than the whimper and a lot more shocking.

This time I was confused, without thinking I wriggled up from my bed and grabbed a nightgown to wrap around myself. I creeped out the door slowly enough to make sure there was no noise as I moved, these hardwood floors were impossible to move soundlessly over.  
Quinn's room was a few metres away from mine that made it a whole lot easier to figure out the path in the dark as well as the was a tiny crack in the door of her room that a stream of light shone through enough to guide my way. I persisted with my slow pace until I reached the edge of the door-frame where I came to a stop, I fixed myself so I could press my ear closer against the door. There was hardly any noise as I listened, only the rustling of bed sheets being moved around and the squeak of her mattress.

"Quinn, come on. It's been so long, you don't know how much I missed you." Mr. Fabray's voice bounced out of the room. My eyes struck wide open and my heart started to thump a million times harder. I shook my head softly, what the hell was going on, did I hear that right? Is Mr. Fabray seriously in his daughter's room this late at night? That didn't seem right, of course he wasn't in Quinn's room.

"Dad, please just not tonight." The plea came from inside the room, it was completely honest and sincere. What was going on inside that room? I carefully shuffled a little closer to the crack to try peer in.

"Fine!" His voice boomed and echoed through the hallway. "But you can't have it your way every night." The words drifted closer to the door, getting louder and louder, his footsteps following.  
I swiftly turned straight back around in the direction of my own room and ran back into my room as fast as possible, not caring about how much sound I was leaving behind. Once I got back into my room I dived underneath the sheets to where I was only 5 minutes ago. I stared out past the curtains, and began to comprehend everything I'd just heard.

* * *

**A/N:** thank you to everyone for reading, and to everyone who followed/favorited/reviewed, you're all my favorites! I have some awesome ideas for the next few chapters so I'll be writing them as soon as possible, if you've got any ideas that you think would fit in please PM me, I'd love to incooprate some of them in! p.s, sorry for the short chapters, they'll get longer and more interesting I promise. Stay classy, Quinntana shippers.


	3. Impossibility

**Notes from Lopez.  
Chapter 3:  
Impossibility.  
**(Quinn's POV)

* * *

"So then after we'd finished we had to close up, and here I was thinking it'd be a such a great idea for the easiest part of the whole procedure to be handed over to the new intern of my group, right?" The shouts that came from my mum's mouth were horridly loud.

"And he even stuffed that one up! I couldn't believe it!" I was suddenly glad it was only me and deaf girl home, anybody else and it could've been embarrassing, Dad was lucky that he constantly missed mum's morning spiels about her nights at the hospital, I'd never been so lucky as to miss it even once.

The clock above the fridge ticked just past 6:30. I let out a sigh of relief as I finished up my cereal licking the milk off my spoon, at least this was an excuse to finally leave the breakfast table and get my stuff ready for school, but today was the first day of Santana's attendance at my school and I was the designator baby-sitter for the next week with responsibilities such as making sure she fits right and buds up with the right people, so in theory I would've rather stayed at the table and turned my mother's morning outbursts into 24/7 ones.

"Wow mum, I can't believe that! Totally crazy." I faked some interest like every other morning, one of these days I hoped that I'd actually be half into what she went on about, after all she gets home at 5:30 most mornings and stays up that extra hour just for me.  
Just as I was about to leave the room and head to get changed, Santana strolled into the kitchen. Her nightgown was tied around her waist and her shirt was hiked up just over her hip, which was noticeable underneath the sheer robe, I couldn't admit to myself that she looked good, I could cut myself a break though she was Hispanic, which meant she was going to be gorgeous from the word go, those eyes played over you in the most suggestive way without having meant to, her lips were full and red that you just wanted to.. Whatever. It was enough to set anyone off nonetheless. I wasn't a genius but I had already placed bets on all the guys at school falling over their feet for her. Santana didn't have that sense about her though, she liked to keep to herself and that drove me crazy. Why not work with what you've got?

"Morning." I mimed to her very gradually. "Here's lunch, we leave in 20." I waited for her nod and proceeded to chuck the brown bag with 'Santana' written over it that my mum had packed with food for that day onto the table in front of her. Santana's stare trailed my mum as she made her way out of the kitchen, she then turned back at me with a look I hadn't been familiar with, it was almost concern as if she knew something about me that required sympathy.

I bent down to look her closer in the eyes, those stunning liquid brown that stung my heart, I pushed the feeling off and pursed my lips.

"Look, for whatever reason you're staring. Forget it. Stop it, I don't want any of it." For a moment, last night had leapt back into my mind. The way he touched me, the way it felt during and after it all flooded through my body and gave me a massive shiver that I had to grasp onto the side of the table, nausea filled me. Santana couldn't have heard that nor could see have seen, one of us would've noticed though my father did have a lack of interest when he was in control and as for me, I had my eyes shut waiting for it to be over like all the other times.

Santana slipped a note underneath my hand that was still pressed against the wood, just before she left for her room.  
I picked the note up and twisted it around both of my hands as she walked straight by me, I didn't want to read what she said to say, but something made me anyway.  
_I'm here when you need me.  
_My breath stayed caught in my lungs, causing me to nearly choke. My entire stomach had just turned, I lifted my hand and place it firmly onto my front trying to sustain the drive to stay standing up. She had _heard,_ or she'd seen, regardless of how she'd found out, Santana knew about last night.  
That's what that note had to mean. Not that I had any confidence to say certainly but she knew definitely something.

* * *

20 minutes had already flown by and it had only seemed that seconds had moved around the clock, I was still resting by the side of the kitchen table staring at Santana's note, I wasn't even dressed for school yet. It was almost impossible to take my attention off the words it until I heard her foot-steps coming down the hallway towards the kitchen. I picked myself up and tried my very best to look casual.

"Ready?" I peered over at her with the utter most suspicion, all she did was nod, break our eye contact and fling her school bag over her shoulder. I strode over to her calmly and raised my lips to meet her ear. "Can you hear me, Santana?" There was no movement from the Latina, I darted my eyes over her completely she seemed not to wince at the slightest.

"You know if you can hear me, I'm going to find out." I paused. Again there was nothing. We awkwardly stood beside each other for a good few minutes until she decided to leave the discomfort, passing a note into my hand.

_We leaving now or what? _Her tall and skinny handwriting was scribbled over the piece of paper.

"Yep." I scrunched it up and shoved it in my pocket grabbing my schoolbag from the counter signally for her to follow as I left the house.  
School had always been a safe zone for me, when things weren't right at home the idea of school had always managed to keep me going. Don't get me wrong here though, it's not the work that I like, it's the escape from the disgust I feel when I look around my home. No matter where I turn there's always something that's there to jump out at me, every corner, every crack. It's not something you can get used to. The freedom of school was what I wanted constantly, it was somewhere that I was protected against the touch of my dad or even the memory of it, nobody knew and I liked it that way. Except now for Santana, I hadn't know this girl for more than 5 seconds and she already knew the biggest ache in my life. How could I trust her when I didn't even know how she'd found out? Now with her around there was a reminder at haven, when I looked at her all that I could see was the support she was trying to pass out, that's not what I needed and certainly not from her, I wanted to be free of the thought.

"Hey," My hand reached out and grabbed the strap of Santana's backpack. "You're going to have to stick with me all day, but I don't want you to even try join in with my friends okay? Tomorrow you can go off on your own or whatever but I need to make my mum happy just once, so you're going to tell her that I helped you out and you're going to make it seem convincing, okay? But just back off my friends." I let go with a bit of a shove and pushed past her when I saw Brittany and Puck waiting at the front gates for me.

"Britt, Puck!" I playfully leered at Puck before I flung my arms around Brittany, snuggling into the side of the shoulder. "I missed you!"

"Hey Q! So good to see you. Who's this?" It hadn't taken her more than a second to ask the question, there was an innocent beam marked over her face that caused me to give in.

"This is Santana, both her parents died so my dad adopted her." I let go of Brittany and stepped back so I could properly introduce them, "It's hard to talk to her, she's deaf."

"That's okay," Brittany moved closer and touched the side of Santana's arm with a small half-smile to show her sincerity. "I'm Brittany, it's lovely to meet you."  
Britt's hands moved fiercely as she signed out what she was saying to Santana.

"You know sign language?!" I accidentally came across a little too surprised, but in all fairness my best friend hadn't told me this or even showed me. Santana looked all too overjoyed at having someone to talk to, I held my head down and rolled my eyes.

"Yeah! I had to learn it when I used to volunteer with the deaf children support group, remember?" She let out the tiniest giggle as she finished speaking and led Santana forward so we were all closer together. Puck's eyes hadn't left Santana's chest the entire time, he had the dirtiest smirk over his face as his head slowly nodded in approval. I smacked his arm and gave him a greasy look.

"Not her." I murmured just enough so he could hear me before the bell rung loud and students began to pile in through the gates. As soon as the bell sounded, Santana's face shot straight toward me as if she were now waiting for me to move so she would be able to follow. Her accuracy was shifty, there was just something about the girl that wasn't right.


	4. Finally, Serenity

**Notes from Lopez.  
Chapter 4:  
Finally, serenity.  
**(Quinn's POV)

* * *

"How's it going in here, sweetheart?" My mum leaned up against the door-frame with a smile over her face. I turned my head up from the pile of homework that laid over my bed to return the gesture.

"It's not too bad, just some assignments for Chemistry. Are you working tonight?"  
I bothered to leave out the part about how overdue the said assignments were.

"I am, I leave in a few hours though so we can have a nice family dinner and you can catch me up on your week. I've made your favorite, chili prawns wrapped in bacon." Her sentence finished with a slight wink and a grin, I couldn't help but smirk at least she tried to please me, unlike my dad who just expected my happiness and was repugnant when I didn't give that to him.

"Okay! You've made up for your absence this past week, please tell me you didn't burn the bacon this time. I like crispy, not scorched."

"No I did not! Try to remember though, I'm not a housewife. I can't cook, Quinny!" She came closer to my bed and rested one knee by the side of my elbow so she was able to lean down and kiss the top of my head. "I do love you."

"Love you too mum." I groaned as she started kissing down my face. "Stop it! Go I'll be out soon!" We both laughed as she shifted from my bed and made her way back through the door while I rubbed her saliva off my cheek.

"Oh and you should get Santana to help you with that homework after dinner, she's trying to get to know you I think you could put in a little effort." My mum stated before she left the room. I packed up my textbooks to leave my room neat and headed out to the dining room. Santana was set up on the carpet of the living room with her notes, books and pens spread out over the entire floor, I peeked over and she was already nearing to the end of the newest assignment we'd been given. How could she be more ahead of me? She'd only just started! She was turned so that I could only see her back, I neared closer to the section of the floor she was sitting in turning to get a better glimpse. I accidentally stood on a pen and it made a small snapping sound, her head twitched around and she peered over her shoulder. I grabbed my foot and rubbed my thumb over it while I glared down at her before she spun back to her original position.

"Ask Santana to clean up please, dinner's ready." My mother's voice sang from the kitchen through to the living room where I stood over the girl who was nonchalantly studying away. I walked closer and bent down so I was directly next to her ear "I know your secret." I murmured just enough so that the both of us could hear, hoping that if she were to be listening the almost provoking would force her into saying something, but the same silence fell between us. I moved around so she was able to read my lips. "Dinner's ready." I hardly had the time to finish my sentence before she slipped another note into the palm of my hand, I looked into her eyes as if to question why and she just nodded and began packing her stuff up for dinner.  
I waited until she exited the room to read the note.  
_When you have to, sleep in my room.  
_I raced to stuff the note in the side pocket of my dress. Crap. There was no longer a doubt in my mind that she knew and if she did, what else had she come to know?

"Quinn! Hurry up." I left the space that I had been standing in and made my way though to the kitchen, taking a seat beside my dad.

"So Santana, how are you finding the new school. I hope Quinn's treating you well there." My dad shot me a look, I pleaded back with an innocent stare hoping that Santana would take one for me. Her eyes scanned over the scene between my father and I, it didn't take her long to smile and nod _grace_fully.

"I'm glad to know that you're taking good care of her Quinn, I really do appreciate it hunny." His hand touched my shoulder and neared closer to my neck sending a pure shock down my spine, his hand moved before I got the chance to smack it off. I pushed my fork around my plate and chipped some bacon off from the shrimp as the entire table sat without passing so much as a word. It always felt too awkward sitting around him. I knew what was coming for me tonight, my dad hadn't touched me at night since he had taken interest in a set of documentaries he had loaned from the vide shop, this had given me a needed break however he had watched through all of them and tonight was going to be the night he came back wanting what he'd given up for the past week.

"You've hardly touched your dinner, aren't you hungry?" My mum questioned me as I continued to delay from eating my food. My thoughts still rested on my dad, how could he do this to my mum much less doing this to me. The poor thing had no idea just what her husband got up to with his daughter when she was out working hard to make a living for our little family.

"No, I'm just feeling a little _sick_," I turned to my father as I pushed my chair out from under the table. "But thanks for making dinner mum, sorry I'm not feeling well I'll save it for later."

* * *

It was a little over 4 hours later when I had finished a small minority of my homework and gave up on the rest my teachers had managed to wait a week they could wait a few more days. I flipped my laptop open and signed into my Facebook account. My mum had been gone for 2 hours, Santana had been in her room for a lot of the night and my dad was still in the lounge room, the TV blasting so loud that I could hear the dialogue clearly. My phone began to vibrate and I picked it up swiftly, I looked down disappointed, it was only a message from Puck about a new girl he'd just managed to hook up with. I wished he had have called, maybe if my dad could hear that I was busy he wouldn't bother interrupting me, but I knew that wasn't going to be the case.

I didn't go to the trouble of replying to Puck, he could wait until the next day anyway. It was already 10:30, so I settled on the decision decision of an early night, putting away my laptop and school work, changing into my pajamas and finally getting under the covers the relief of my satin sheets felt so good on my body, it almost made my nerves come to an ease.

"Quinn?" I heard a low whisper, my dad was leaned over the end of my bed, trying to check if I was awake. "Hey hunny, move over." He ordered while he lifted my covers and squished his body up against mine. I could smell the foul odor of alcohol all over him, it made me almost vomit.

"Dad.. I'm really tired." I complained to him, trying my best to push at his chest.

"Don't worry, I can do all the work baby." His hands moved mine with simplicity, there was no longer a barrier between us, he began to harshly move up my thigh and over my hip, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It had felt so wrong just like every other night, it was exactly like all the other times he's gotten into my bed and forcefully touched me. I was being stripped of my innocence all over again. His hands were hard and took no regard for the marks he was leaving over my skin, I had no choice but to let out fake whimpers of pleasure in hopes that he'd be fulfilled soon enough.

"I've missed your skin, I've missed these lips." The fingers were soon enough to touch my lips, pulling at them almost as if he were teasing himself to want more.

_Please don't do this. I don't want to give this to you anymore. _The words ran over and over in my mind, both he and I knew what was coming next, I knew it as soon as I heard the sound of his zip coming undone and the sense of his hands playing at the top of my pants. My heart set into panic mode, anybody within a 10 mile radius was sure to hear the rapid beating. He began to roll me onto my back so I could see him wholly while he laid over the top of me, I clamped hands over my eyes and held my breath. _Please. _He took my pants and pulled them all the way down in one fast motion, touching right inside my thigh. _Please, don't._

I waited for it, I almost longed for it to begin so it would hurry up and be over. But it didn't, I felt the heavy weight lift from my body and the sound of him fleeing only lasted 2 seconds before he was completely out of the room. I hesitated to let my hands go, until a soft presence filled the space where he had been. I felt my pants roll back up, my shirt was tidied and my blanket was pulled back over the top of me, the same as it had been when I got ready to go to sleep, the only difference now was the body that remained beside me, their arms were wrapped tightly around my body, I felt safe.

My palms still hesitated to move, but they didn't have to. The undemanding hands pleaded at my grip to move down, the safety of this person let them fall. My eyes took a second to adjust to the dimness of my room, the only light was my bed-side lamp that gave the room an easy glow. I glanced twice over my body, I noticed the set of hands that were grasped onto the edge of my hip, I trailed my fingers over the dark skin of the hands, they weren't cold but warming, I tried my best to hold them closer to my body.

"Thank you." I whispered to the person laying beside me.

"You're welcome." The pleasant voice drifted out of Santana's lips.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry for the gap in the updating! I'm the genius that decided to start a Fanfiction during exam period, but I hope this chapter was worth the wait! Thanks for everyone reviewing, favoriting, subscribing, I love getting the notifications for it, gives me a little more motivation to pass up my homework to write ;)


	5. The Morning After

**Notes from Lopez.  
Chapter 5:  
The Morning After  
**(Santana's POV)

* * *

My arms were still securely wrapped around Quinn's tiny body when I had woken up, the sun had only just passed the hill outside the window signaling to all people watching that the day was about to begin. Quinn continued to remain fast asleep beside me, her head was slightly tilted into my shoulder almost as if my arms were cradling her body, holding her safely from last night's events.

It had only just occurred to me that I had a vivid recollection of the night before, each event was significantly burnt into my mind like a force that, no matter how hard you tried, would not push away. It was quite late at night when I had heard the sounds that gave off the impression that something was happening in Quinn's room. These were sounds that I had heard several times before, although previously I remained decided on keeping out of her business. Last night something had pressed me to do otherwise.

Whether it have been the way her father had looked at her with such desire, or the plead in her eyes that she sent shooting straight back to him when she cleared the room, whatever it was, something had driven me to intervene. As I had felt last night, which I still felt this morning, none of my actions had been extremely heroic and I had not been brave, but I felt as though it was a responsibility for me to step in. Quinn was not able to defend herself against the authority of her dad, must less against the consistent respect she still had for him even after all this time.

It hadn't take much for me to get out of bed and retreat to Quinn's bedroom where her father laid over the top of her vulnerable body, I couldn't scratch the image out of my mind, the innocent girl lying next to me right now had a repulsive horny man towering over her forcing her into something that was only pleasurable for him, just hours ago. Once I had gotten to the room it took only fragments of a second for Mr. Fabray's face to turn from amused to plain terrified, he was quickly on his feet and out of the room without so much of a word just a front of a calm composure that was clearly being faked. Quinn looked more alone than ever the moment he left her bed, and that tore through and through at my heart.

Quinn was certainly not the most welcoming person, but she had her reasons for being standoffish, that I couldn't blame her for, but it was last night that proved my theories correct. She wasn't the person she wished the world to perceive her as, she had qualities beneath the act that had to be worked at for you to be able to receive.

It was this morning that I wondered what would happen, last night had been only the successful feeling of stopping her father. Was the same polite Quinn going to show today? Or was it at my best interest to leave now and save her from having to find her way through the memories of last night. Better yet, was she going to remember that I had spoken to her? Would she comment, or leave it alone? I had never intended on letting Quinn in on my secret, I had managed to uphold it for years and I didn't want to let go of my mask. Somehow it felt like letting go of my dad, and at other times it felt like I'd be disappointing him, and the last thing I wanted was to dis_grace _his memory. But regardless of that, I had spoken to Quinn, I had let her know that I was not only able to hear, but also that I was unmute. It was obvious that she had her suspicions but now she actually knew, nobody had ever known before leaving me with no reactions that I could possibly hope for.

Quinn's body moved restlessly underneath me which sent me into a mild panic, she would wake up eventually and she was going to want answers seeing as though it was everyday the girl you weren't friendly with had her arms tied around your waist in the same bed. I still had small hope that she would forget everything and act normal, but there chances of that were 1 in a million, which weighted my decision of taking the easy way out. My motions were slow and taken with precaution, I managed to slip out from her grasp easily without waking the blonde up, I placed a pillow in-between her arms where I had once been lying and exited the room.

Surely that was the right choice, perhaps she would even forget all about my assistance and focus only on the fact that her father had fled the room before he managed to do anything of an extreme. I kept at a fast pace as I made my way through the house, passing my bedroom, Mr and Mrs Fabray's bedroom and the living room straight to the kitchen where Quinn's father stood facing the window which was placed above the sink.

"Oh crap." I heard a mutter, presumably at the sound of my entrance. He didn't bother to turn around, instead he resumed cleaning up the mess of the dishes. Looking at him was hardly bearable. I moved on past the counter that he was standing by and collected my stack of notepaper from the table, ripping a piece off from the others. I had two notes to write, one was for Quinn and the other was for Mr. Fabray.

I started on Quinn's first, trying my best to keep my writing neat. '_Quinn, please don't hate me for last night..' _the ink of the pen ran out quickly, I sighed and rolled it to the other side of the table, grabbing another. I had to let her know that what she though happened last night, did actually happen. Excusing the part where I had responded to her, that part she could attempt to remember and figure out whether it was correct or not. '_I swear to you that I was only trying to help. If you'd like me to forget about it, let me know and I'd be happy to try. But if you need help, I'm here. – Lopez' _I inspected over the note twice before I settled on the quality of it, it was quickly folded up and placed in the pocket of my pajamas.  
Mr. Fabray's note was next, and the same level of care was not taken. '_Going for a walk.' _This one was slammed onto the counter with a thud as I walked past him back to Quinn's room.

Quinn was in the exact same position as I had left her only now her leg had moved up to support the pillow. I entered her room and lightly sat down on the side making sure not to creak or rock the bed in case she woke. My finger's edged her hair back behind her ear, away from her face and eyes, her delicate features were able to be seen clearly now. My hand hovered over her cheek, she was cool compared to my skin and I urged to get back into the bed and provide her with warmth, instead I pressed my lips against her cheek and popped the note underneath her hand that rested against the pillow. The blanket was settled down underneath her ribs revealing most of her skin, I pulled the sheets up and tucked the edges around her shoulders, Quinn winced and the blanket dragged up a little further so she looked completely comfortable now. A smile came across my lips as I sat and stared at the girl, she was quite attractive I had to admit, even more so while she was asleep. The peacefulness gave you a sense of tranquility, as if nothing else mattered in the world other because this girl was here. My hand touched Quinn one last time before I stood up and continued on to my bedroom to get changed.

* * *

I wasn't completely sure what my day was going to entail and I wasn't honestly sure about leaving Quinn alone with her father either, although her mum was home she still wouldn't be up for another hour and the only thing that let me leave the house was the hope that Quinn would pursue her for help if things became intense. I knew that I needed to get away from the house, I had been there for a little over 3 weeks and I hadn't taken the time to venture outside unless of course you counted school, but even that wasn't so great you're still stuck, there's no freedom there. This seemed like an appropriate time to take a break, even though being around the house with Quinn's dad there was something I could hardly do I felt she may need her space, if someone had come across my secret by accident I would hope they'd give me the same thing and until Quinn came to me or needed something from me, I was going to provide her that space that I deemed necessary.

Lima seemed like a nice town from the outside, it was small but there was everything here that you needed. There was a place for everyone, teenagers had the mall, BreadstiX and the Lima Bean, the older women had the café's that were run by locals where they were sure to run into many of their friends, older men had the pub and so on so forth. So on transcript it would appear as a lovely place to live, that was until a closer look was taken. The mall was filled with cliques, there were certain areas that were off limits for the 'nerdier' population of the teens, BreadstiX was used as the venue for the final date before girls gave into the pressuring given by guys and the Lima Bean was where the girls got their coffee fix after the guy had ditched the girl shortly after they'd given themselves up. The café's were occupied with women gossiping about their friends, a more matured version of teenage girl bitching, and the pub had two types of men. One was the common sleazy type, and two being the men that ran from their problems. However, Lima still surfaced as a exquisite place to live.

I dodged the main areas where I had a chance of coming in contact with conflict, or even witnessing drama. Today I just wasn't in the mood, especially not with Quinn on my mind. I pushed my hands in my pockets and kept moving onwards, setting my eyes on a park bench that was shaded by a couple of surrounding trees.

"Santana." I heard my name being called from behind, it was a voice I didn't recognize but I remained facing forward pretending not to hear the person.  
Eventually they caught up and I felt a hand on my shoulder before Brittany's face came into vision. Her face lit up as she breathed a sigh of exhaustion.

'_Hi! Took me ages to catch up.' _Her lips moved while her hands race to get the correct gestures for each word.

'_Hey! Sorry if I had have known you were trying to catch me I would've slowed down my pace.' _I left with a wink.

'_No, it's totally fine. So why're you out here by yourself? Quinn should be looking after you!'_

'_Just seeing what Lima has to offer. I wouldn't want to put her out, I'd rather just keep to myself anyway.' _

'_I don't think you'd be putting her out, it's not that bad all you have to do is walk around I can show you the way if you like?' _Her eyebrows rose, I could tell already by the expression on her face that she was hoping for a yes, so I just nodded in return. Having someone around couldn't hurt.

'_Great!_' Brittany's body turned to face me every time she went to sign something. '_We should go to BreadstiX, have you had breakfast? Oh well, we can have an early lunch._'  
I started to follow her, as she seemed to know where she was going which was helpful, as opposed to my lack of knowledge on the area, which would be likely to get us lost.

'_You seem really awesome, Santana._' As she signed, my phone vibrated in the back pocket of my jeans. I reached around and grabbed it out only for a moment to switch the notifications off, not bothering to check who the message was from.

'_Thanks,' _I grinned willingly. '_You too.'_ My hands moved back at her, maybe I'd finally found a friend in this place.

* * *

**A/N:** So this chapter was made possible due to the fact that my girlfriend was at work (so she wasn't able to tell me to study for my exams next week..) and majority (not all) of my homework is complete. Glad the last chapter intrigued some people, hopefully this chapter does the same thing! Hope you like the little Brittana friendship that's starting to come in. Oh and to those who want me to update more often, I want the same thing you do ;)


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